Maximum Ride: The Pern Story
by Lupanaridae
Summary: The flock finds themselves on Pern, a planet where humans and dragons, who bond telepathicly, co-exist in order to defend the planet from a common enemy: Thread. Rated T to be safe.
1. Meeting With NASA

**A/N - Since the Maximum Ride novels are set in this time period, and Dragonriders of Pern novels are set into the future, I had to be creative. From the time of first landing (i.e. Dragonsdawn) to the 9th Pass (i.e. original trilogy, which this story is based) is approximately 2,000 years give or take. Besides that, Dragonsdawn, the prequel that explains a lot, is set in the future to begin with. If you haven't read the DRoP books this doesn't make sense, but I hope I explained this throughly. If you still have questions, don't be afraid to ask! ENJOY THE FANFIC!**

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"For the thousandth time, Gazzy, I don't know!" I turned around, determined not to blow a gasket. We were walking up to a giant hanger that had NASA on the sign. That's right, NASA, the fancy space program. They had specifically asked for me and my flock to come down here. And now, Gazzy was beside himself with excitement, wanting to know everything right this second. Jeb had tagged along, but was being very quiet.

"Hey, relax, Max." Said Fang in his calm, almost monotonous tone of voice. "He IS only eight, you know."

I turned my head to Fang. At the moment, his black hair covered both eyebrows, giving him an even more handsome appearance; And that was just fine with me.

"Okay, Mr. Know-It-All, since you have such good advice, why don't you take over being the flock leader?" Fang kept an emotionless expression; Something he was too good it.

"Why would I want your job when your such a great leader already?" He smirked, a half grin appearing on his face.

"Someone's coming to great us." Said Iggy. That really freaked me out because, in case you didn't know, Iggy's blind. The scientists who gave us our wings also tried to enhance Iggy's eyesight. Fortunately for Iggy, he can at least feel colors (another gift from the scientists: we have freaky abilities), so he isn't completely blind.

"Hello, and you must be Max." The man said, glancing around at the other five kids in front of him. "Would you care to introduce your family here?"

"Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel." I said, pointing to each. "And you would be?" The man grinned.

"I am Tom Hewburg, but please, call me Tom. I am the one who asked you to come here today. If you would please, follow me and I will explain the details." I noticed that Tom completely disregarded Jeb's presence. "NASA, as you know, has conducted numerous space expeditions, even in your own lifetime. We have asked you all here today for one very simple reason: To help be a part of it." I glanced at my flock to see their reactions. They were speechless.

"You mean, we get to go up into space?!" Nudge asked. Hewburg laughed and patted Nudge's shoulder.

"That's exactly what I mean, kids. We want to send you into space!" Before he could continue, another man came up and started talking.

"You must be the ones! I knew that having you bird kids help on a missing would really help the community! And, it would even help you guys. Aren't you supposed to save the world? Well maybe you do that by detecting a stray meteor or some other danger. What do you say kids?"

I turned to my flock, who all looked excited. Angel and Nudge both gave me a thumbs up; Iggy grinned and high-fived Gazzy. Even the strong Fang cracked a smile. I knew the decision.

"When do we go up into space?" Both men laughed, and I noticed that Jeb looked pale. He hadn't wanted us to go into space.

"You guys go ahead and wait in that room," Jeb said pointing, "I'll be there in a minute." As we left I couldn't help but be excited about this mission. Maybe in order to save the world I had to go into space.

"This isn't over, Hewburg." Jeb said angrily, "Your putting them in too much danger." Jeb walked off, leaving the two men.

"Boy, dad doesn't seem too happy about all this, does he?" Garner asked. Hewburg chuckled.

"Indeed not. I had assumed that anyone would be more than happy to have their child sent into space. I guess not."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I think what your doing is great. I mean, who else in this business would let six kids under the age of sixteen go up into space to help study it? Oh, by the way, how's the P.E.R.N. mission going?" Hewburg smiled to himself, thinking of what Garner didn't know.

"We've had some problems. The ship made it safely, but the stupid launcher somehow sent them several thousand years into the future. Fortunately, our new transportation device has been fitted with the capabilities to time travel into the future, so the examination will go on." Garner was surprised.

"Wow, that's great news! Oops, I have to be in the chairman's office in two minutes… bye!" Garner shot off like a bullet, leaving Hewburg to his thoughts. No one knew that he had assigned the flock to be sent to Pern along with the team. It was all going to work out. It always did for him.

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**And one more thing, if I don't get enough reviews, I won't be updating this, so please REVIEW. Even if you didn't like it, just tell me so!**


	2. The Transporter

**I forgot to add this the first time: I do NOT OWN MAXIMUM RIDE or Dragonriders of Pern. If I did I wouldn't be puttting stories on Fanfiction, I'd be rich!**

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"This... is... wicked... AWESOME!!" Gazzy's smile was wider than I'd ever seen it, as was Angel's. Nudge was so excited she was speechless - that's right, SPEECHLESS -, and Fang, as always, kept to himself. Iggy was unusually quiet, and my feelings could be summed up in two words: freaking out.

"We ARE going up into space, right Max?" Nudge said, coming out of her shock. She gave me those confounded Bambi eyes, so of course I had to say yes. The flock looked like they were about to celebrate Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving all on the same day. Everyone was smiling (except for Fang, because he never smiles) and basking in the opportunity of going into space.

"You don't seam too excited, Max." Fang's dark eyes met mine, and he pulled me aside from the flock. "You were all for this assignment not two minutes ago, what's up?" I sighed, not being able to find my concerns.

"Maybe I'm just being paranoid, maybe I'm not. I keep thinking about the safety of the flock." Fang took a moment to respond.

"Max, we won't even be on Earth. We'll be up in space, away from Jeb, away from whitecoats, and away from Erasers." Fang had me there. He leaned his head in and whispered, "You need to learn to relax more." Fang preceded to lightly kiss my ear, making my face heat up.

The next morning came not a moment too soon. The younger kids were so excited that not a one got much sleep. We were supposed to begin training today, but since we passed the first few with flying colors, we were able to skip all that. Okay, I admit, Gazzy did hurl at one point, but he did so good on the other tests that they let him go.

Hewburg led us all into this large room, which held an even larger piece of machinery. I had to admit, it was pretty impressive looking.

"This is what's gonna send you into space, kids." Garner said, positioning himself at the controls.

"Was the bug fixed correctly?" Hewburg said in a low voice to one of the operators.

"According to my records it was fixed just last week." Hewburg nodded in approval. His plan was going very smoothly.

We were introduced to the four astronauts who would accompany us in space. Their names were Jeffrey, Stella, Carlos and Herman. I didn't like Herman one bit. There was something about him, about all of them, that I didn't like. As much as I expressed my disapproval, we were stuck with them.

Sometime later I noticed Hewburg talking to the operators, but even with my good hearing, I couldn't make out what they were saying. Man, my hands were shaking I was so nervous. When have I ever been like this? Never! I'm Maximum Ride, the flock leader. I don't get scared. Ever!

A strong, callused hand squeezed my fingers, and I instantly relaxed. I squeezed Fang's hand back, showing that I needed it. Though I wasn't looking, I could tell he was grinning a reassurance.

I kept my eyes on the operators, who were pushing buttons and pulling levers that fired up the transporter. As I was about to close my eyes, I noticed the startled, concerned look on the operator's face. Before my mouth could form words, everything turned black.

"You fool!" Hewburg screamed at the man, "I thought you said the bug was fixed!"

"The files must have been incomplete or incorrect, sir." The man fumbled at the computer. "They have been transported to the desired destination successfully, but have traveled into a future time period." Hewburg counted to ten before speaking to keep himself from murdering the man.

"Exactly how many years are we talking about?"

"It will take time to pinpoint the exact number, but its safe to say that the team has traveled some 2,700 years into the future." Hewburg was silent a long moment.

"I suppose the mission can continue as planned. Try to establish contact with Jeffrey or Herman. I'll come by later." Time to work out a alternative route. This was certainly not planned, but could easily be adapted to fit his scheme. He wanted to know what was on that planet. Badly. There were rumors that, if true, could be of great benefit to himself. He prayed that they were.


	3. WHERE Are We?

**A/N - Finally, the next chapter! I'm sorry I took so long to update this. I've been very busy, and I've also been working on other stories. I will try to keep from neglecting this one, because I really like the ideas I have planned for it. To make up for it, here's a nice long chapter for you!**

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The next thing I knew, I was standing on solid ground. The surroundings weren't exactly what I pictured for space. Actually, nothing I saw was what I expected. Then I remembered that we were never told WHERE exactly we were being sent.

I took a flock count, coming up with a total of nine. That's right, those four astronauts came with us. But why didn't they look the least bit surprized? Herman seamed in a daze, listening to the person on the other end of his little walkie-talkie thingy that I didn't know the name for. Once he put it away, I stepped closer to him and began to confront him.

"Where the heck are we, Herman?" I screamed aloud, "Because this sure isn't what I expected to see when we were told we'd be exploring SPACE!" Herman rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. Obviously he knew something I didn't, and I was going to find out.

"We're on a small planet called Pern in the Sagittarian Sector, which is in the Rukbak System." I was, for once, speechless. We weren't on Earth? "Several months ago we sent a group of people here to colonize the planet. We received only a few reports of their findings before all communications ceased. We are here to discover how they are thriving. And according to Hewburg there was a malfunction with the transporter, so we have been sent some 2,700 years into the future."

He stopped talking, so I assumed he was finished. I wasn't sure which was more shocking to me at the moment. The fact that Hewburg double crossed us, that Herman was on my list of people not to trust, or that we were on another planet. I turned and walked away from everyone, not wanting to accidentally kill anyone with my anger. Of course, it didn't take long for Fang to follow me.

"What's gotton you so upset?" Fang asked, "Yeah, Hewburg lied to us, but we can get back at him later. What's bothering you?" I whirled so I was face to face with his dark black eyes.

"Don't you get it? We're on another planet! We're in danger here! What if the whitecoats-"

"But Max, like you said, we're not ON Earth. How can the whitecoats find us if THEY don't even know this planet exists?" I had to admit, for once in a lifetime, Fang was right. We weren't on Earth, and therefore were probably safer than I had thought.

"Your right," I said, and Fang relaxed some. We went back to the others now that I could be rational again. Herman didn't look too pleased that I cut him off.

"As I was saying," he went on, clearly annoyed, "There's a good possibility that, because we're in the future, the colonists - if they actually survived this long - won't remember anything about Earth, or even being sent here. So don't expect a warm welcome or for them to comprehend what we're here for."

"Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, schmoo schmoo and all that, could we just hurry up and get this 'mission' over with so we can get back to Earth?" Herman's face turned red with anger, but didn't say a word. It was like that for several moments before Stella broke the tension.

"Why don't you kids fly up ahead and see what you can find? We'll stay here and set up a base." Since really, there was nothing else to do, we did just that. We took off one by one, feeling the air lift us up like it did every time we opened our wings. It's really a good way of cooling off, too.

"So, what's this planet look like?" Iggy asked me. By this time we were flying high above the ground, and had a clear view of the planet below.

"There isn't really that much to see, Ig. There's some grass, but but a lot of trees. Actualy, there's hardly any plant life for a while. Its almost as if they don't want them to grow, so they... burned them, I guess?" I looked towards Fang, who nodded his agreement.

"It looks like its going to rain, Max." Said Nudge, pointing to the darkening clouds.

"It sure does." I said, looking more closely at the sky. "Those rainclouds sure look different from the ones we know." Just as I spoke, I realized just how fast those clouds were moving. I watched as the clouds quickly made their way across the sky. Before I knew it they were right above us. We weren't flying high enough to be in any danger, thank goodness, but I was still worried.

"Maybe we should find shelter." Gazzy's small voice sounded scared as he spoke. Before I could agree, a loud, deep sound reached my ears. The kind of sound that made me think of Jurassic Park or some other movie with dinosaurs. I stopped flying and started hovering.

"What the heck...?" I was only able to get those three words out. The rest of the flock had heard it, too, so I wasn't turning crazy.

"Look! Up there!" Angel's small hand was pointing straight up. I looked, and saw... these huge creatures, flying towards the black clouds. They had huge wings, four feet, and a long tail. All in all they resembled reptiles. It wasn't just five or six of them, either. There had to have been over thirty of these things, and they were flying in a weird formation, like geese do. There were two different formations, one a short distance below the other. Both formations were flying higher then we were currently, although we could have gotten to that hight in a second.

I for one was freaked out.

We continued to watch for a while until I saw what I thought was fire coming from one of the creature's mouths. That did it for me.

"Did you see that?" Nudge yelled. I guess she had seen the fire, too. I nodded, for I couldn't get my vocal chords to work. 'If they are breathing fire, what are they flaming at?"

"And how are these... things able to do that?" I countered. Fang turned toward me with a look that said 'I'm not liking this one bit'. I couldn't agree more.

Just then I saw something else strange. There was this weird patch of stringy looking things falling from the sky above us. It looked like long peices of string or rope, falling in bunches. And it was falling fast.

"Incoming!" I warned, and went to dodge the mass. Fang looked up and went he went to move, the stringy stuff caught his left wingtip and his leg. Fang squinted his eyes and began screaming bloody murder. My heart literaly stopped beating in my chest. Fang was in serious pain. Before my brain could tell my body to react, Fang started to fall towards the ground.

I screamed his name as loud as I could and began to dive after him. But Fang was falling too fast for me. Then a dark shadow swept over me, and my heart stopped a second time. There was one of the large reptile-looking things diving towards Fang. I froze stiff, and the creature dove right past me. There was only one thing my brain was screaming as it flew past me: ITS A DRAGON.

It was brown, and had scales all over. There were ridges on its back and neck and weird leather straps across its body like a harness. And there, seated between the ridges and seccured by the straps, was a man.

Before I could comprehend the significance of what I was seeing, The dragon caught Fang with its giant claws, leveled out its body, and disappeared. Just like that.

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**A/N - Cliffhanger! Muahahaha! Sorry, had to do that :) Oh, for those of you who have read Dragonriders of Pern, this chapter should've made sence. But if you haven't read it, it will all be explained within the next two chapters! Please don't forget to review!**


	4. Finding Fang

**A/N - I'm sorry for not updating in forever; I've been on vacation and therefore have been otherwise divided timewise. I haven't forgotten about updating I just haven't gotten around to writing anything.**

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Honestly, I have no clue how I didn't just fall out of the sky right there. I had just seen Fang in the claws of a dragon (or at least I thought it was a dragon), and suddenly disappear into thin air. I should have been frozen stiff, unable to move. But my wings were still beating, still keeping me aloft.

"Max what was that thing?" Nudge asked me. I could clearly hear the shakiness in her voice. Up above us, more roars were sounding from the reptilian creatures.

"I'm thinking it was... a dragon." I answered, trying to hind my own worries.

"Will somebody please tell me what happened?" Iggy yelled next to me. I shook my head vigorously.

"Sorry, Ig, no time. We have to save Fang. Ask Angel to tell you." I beat my wings, flying in the direction that the dragon came from. My flock followed behind. Using my ability, I flew super fast, leaving them far behind. I had to slow it down when I approached a large mountain that looked promising. As I got closer, I noticed that the mountain looked more like an extinct volcano. There was an opening in the wall of the rim, and a few scattered dragons around the base.

As fast as my wings would let me, I dropped quickly onto the ledge and ran inside the volcanic dwelling. Who would have thought to live INSIDE the rim of an extinct volcano, and why? No time to wonder about that.

I raced along, barely glancing at my surroundings, and tried to listen for Fang. I took off down a hallway, just as I heard a heart-wrenching scream come from Fang. I stopped in my tracks. That sound almost made my heart stop; Fang had never, and I mean NEVER in his life, screamed like he did just then. Even when Ari had all but killed him on the beach, he had barely made a sound. For Fang to do something like that… I kept myself from finishing that thought.

I had started running again, and now came to a halt as I heard voices in one of the rooms ahead.

"F'nor, am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" A woman asked, sounding scared. Please don't let them see the wings, I thought. Anything but the wings…

"I'm not so sure myself, mother." Said a man. He sounded just as skeptical as she. "I wish I had had some of that fellis juice so I could blame what I'm seeing on that…" Amoan sounded from the room, and there was no mistaking who it was from.

"How did you find him again?" The man's mother asked. I noticed I was breathing hard, and forced myself to calm down and concentrate.

"Canth saw him fall right out of the sky. He was scanning for Thread when he informed me of someone falling from the sky. Canth's just as shocked as we ourselves are."

"Have you ever seen a person with wings, F'nor?" My heart sank. So they had seen them. This was getting out of hand. I had to get Fang out of there. But how?

Before I could formulate a plan, something hit me and I fell to the floor. Whatever hit me suddenly disappeared when I looked up. To make matters worse, I was right in front of the room. Typical, right?

F'nor turned towards me, looking surprised. But my focus was immediately directed towards Fang, unconscious. His jeans were torn from his body, showing odd scrapes on his leg that were deep and bleeding. His wings were outstretched, the same scraps appearing on his right wing. He looked pretty bad. There also appeared to be burns on his face… from some extreme cold? But where?

"What happened to Fang?" I choked, fully realizing the condition he was in. F'nor looked at me seriously.

"Wait, so you know him?" I couldn't blame F'nor for wanting answers, but I did, too. Probably more than he did.

"Yeah, I know him. Now what happened?" I wanted to scream, but something inside was keeping me from doing that.

"No, first, you're going to tell me a few things." He stepped past me and shut the door. It took every fiber in me not to knock them both out, grab Fang, and get off of this planet. "Now, would you first of all, kindly explain to me where your from and how your friend has wings?"

"The wings part is gonna be a long story." I tried, "I'm from Earth, you know, the same planet that the first humans here came from." Now F'nor was speechless. He cocked his head slightly, and grinned at me.

"Okay, nice try. What Hold are you from and what Weyr are you bound to?"

"Hold? Weyr? What the heck are you talking about?" I had no clue if this guy was ever going to take me seriously. And I also had no freakin clue why I was telling him all of this. I just met him! Could I even trust him?

"Which is it? Benden? Fort? Half-Circle Sea Hold perhaps? Out with it!" The man was suddenly silenced by the woman standing next to him.

"F'nor, do we have any reason to believe that she's lying? Do we know much about our ancestors and where they came from?" Surprisingly that worked, and F'nor gave me an honest smile.

"I can't argue with that, can I?" He paused, seemingly lost in a daydream, totally oblivious to the world. Just as quickly, he turned to the woman. "Canth reports other young children landing on the ledge. Are you not alone?" Before I could answer, the rest of the flock came running in, Angel and Iggy with outstretched wings. I sent a thought to Angel to put their wings in asap, and they did.

"So, is Fang going to be alright?" I asked again.

"Well, Fang has a Threadscored leg and... wing. He was in a lot of pain, judging by the noise he was making. He's not unconscious anymore, just resting. Now if you don't mind, I'd like you to tell me more about you being from… Earth, was it?"

"Forget it, F'nor." The woman said, "The child needs to rest, she's obviously had enough anxiety for one day. And we don't even know her name!" I couldn't help but smile at her mother-like attitude.

"Its Max, by the way." I informed her. "The rest of us are Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel." Nudge gave me a scared look when I gave the flock's real names.

"Well, you guys just rest up, and we can talk later." She grabbed F'nor's arm and drug him out of the room. The last thing I heard her say was, "I've never heard such names before."


	5. Are You CRAZY?

**A/N - Thank you to Whiteraven93 for pointing out the error I made in chapter 3 (Pern dragons don't have scales...). We'll just pretend that Max THOUGHT she saw scales :) And I'm not sure where exactly I want to go with this so if anyone has a suggestion they'd like to through out there just let me know please!**

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As soon as the door was closed, Iggy started yelling. And I don't mean just yelling, I'm talking full blown bloody murder, and it was all directed at me.

"Are you out of your mind? Why the heck did you give that guy our real names? How can we know if they can be trusted, even?"

"Iggy, you know as well as I do that the last thing I wanna do is put the flock in danger-"

"BUT THAT'S WHAT YOUR DOING!" Iggy was right in my face now, his face filled to the brim with hatred.

"I wasn't finished, Ig. I don't want to put the flock in danger, but we don't have any other options! Fang's injuries are unlike anything we've ever seen. Those people are the only ones who know how to deal with it. Not the scientist that Hewburg sent with, not Jeb, not us. Fang needs us to do this one thing for him." Iggy thought about all this for a minute.

"Let me feel Fang's wounds." he said finally. I guided him to the bedside and let his hands do all the work. His face changed once he knew what we were dealing with. "This is... strange. It stings my fingers and I'm just barely touching it." he quickly pulled away. "I don't like this one bit, Max, but I can see that we really don't have any other choice." I relaxed some and pulled Iggy into a brotherly hug.

"Besides, Iggy, how can the whitecoats find us here if they don't even know the planet exists?" Iggy smiled. I turned to the others. "Did anyone else notice that that guy F'nor was acting really strange? Like he was staring off into space for a moment?"

"I saw him, Max," said little Angel, "and I know why: he was talking to Canth." Everyone's eyes were instantly on her.

"Who the heck is Canth?" I asked.

"Canth is a dragon, Max. His rider is the man you were talking to. Canth was warning him that we were landing on the ledge."

"But there wasn't a dragon in the room, Angel." I replied, "how could he possibly talk to him?"

"Canth spoke to F'nor in his mind. Like I can." No one moved a muscle. Nudge was the one who finally said something.

"So are you saying that this planet is full of people and dragons that can read minds?" I shook my head.

"I have no idea, guys. But I do know that we need to rest and worry about this later." No one objected.

About a half-hour later everyone was asleep. Well, everyone except for me, that is. I couldn't turn my mind off from the crazy events that happened today. Coming to a strange planet, Fang getting hurt, seeing dragons, and getting lied to by Herman and his team. They were seriously in for it later.

Fang rolled over in his sleep and was no facing me. He didn't look like he was in pain, and already his wounds were looking a bit better. The women that had been with F'nor must have put some kind of cream or medication on it. I for one was glad that he wasn't hurting. After glancing around to make sure the flock was asleep, I gently squeezed Fang's hand in mine.

"Don't worry, Fang," I whispered, "we're all right here, and its all gonna work out."


	6. F'lar and Lessa

I don't know how long I was asleep, but I woke up when the door to our room opened. It was that same guy F'nor along with another man and a younger woman who I didn't know. They noticed Fang's sleeping figure so they spoke softly. Their movement caused Angel and Iggy to stir awake anyway.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," he said quietly, "but you must talk to my brother F'lar and his wyermate Lessa."

Awkward silence.

"Wyermate?"

"Oh right, sorry. I forgot your not familiar with our language. Um... they are lovers, I guess you could say."

"Oh," I replied. This entire thing still had me nervous. They pulled up some of the chairs scattered about the room and sat down.

_Don't worry, Max, they are good people. They don't have any thoughts to harm us or anything. _Angel's words of reassurance actually reassured me for once.

"You two don't look like you could be brothers." I stated bluntly, noticing their different features. F'nor shrugged it off, as if he'd heard it before a thousand times.

"Actually we're half brothers. F'lar's mother died shortly after he was born. I think you met my mother earlier. She was here taking care of your brother Fang."

"He's technically not my brother, but we're so close sometimes I feel like he is." I glanced at Fang, who looked so peaceful in his sleep that for a second I forgot that he had been screaming in pain not too long ago.

"So, Max, can we take a few minutes and start at the beginning?" F'lar finally spoke up.

"What do you mean the beginning?"

"Well, first your names, and then this whole being from Earth and F'nor said something about wings?" he turned to his half-brother for conformation and nodded. I looked over at Angel and Iggy, wondering the same thing. Angel agreed and Iggy seamed indifferent.

So I decided to go out on a limb and trust them. I told them how some sick wackos had created us, and that part of our DNA was avian. When I extended my wings, F'lar's eyes grew wide and for a moment he looked like he was going to pass out. I told them about all the experiments they did, and the side-effects of them. When Lessa realized Iggy couldn't and never would be able to see, she almost started crying. But being the brave, strong guy he was, Iggy pretended that it didn't bother him and that he actually got along quite well. I even told them about our escape, Jeb's betrayal, and how we always looked out for one another no matter what, and ended with NASA and the whole mission thing.

So basically I gave them a history lesson of our lives up to this point. Eventually Gazzy and Nudge woke up too and they added a few things here and there.

When I was finished, F'lar turned to his brother and smiled.

"So let me get this straight: You kids have come here to learn about Pern and our way of life?"

"Apparently NASA sent some people here to colonize it and they wanted us to check on their progress. But along the way, we were accidentally sent here, into the future." Lessa chuckled at my words, which confused me.

"They timed it, F'lar!" she said smiling, and F'lar laughed. Must have been an inside joke I didn't get.

"So, you said your with four other adults, where are they?"

"Somewhere south of here I think. They told us to go check the area and then there was that storm..." Fang's screams echoed in my head.

"Well, trust me, Max, Fang isn't going anywhere until he's healed. Thread does enough damage as it is, and frankly, I'm just as curious of you guys as you are of us."

"What was that stuff that was falling from the sky? It looked like string." F'nor's face grew darker.

"We call it Thread. Its a deadly menace that falls every time the Red Star gets close to Pern's orbit. It destroys every living thing in its path: plants, animals, and people, as your friend found out. The only things that can stop it are water and fire. Our dragons have the ability to produce fire on certain occasions, so we ride them, directing them to the clumps of Thread, and the dragons do the rest."

"How do you communicate with them?" Nudge asked. That was the one question that we all wanted an answer to, but were afraid to know the answer. F'lar answered.

"The dragons are telepathic; they can speak with their minds. But they only ever talk to their rider alone, and no other human."

"Why is that?" asked Nudge.

"Because the only way a human can speak with a dragon is if they are chosen by that dragon. Of course, there are always those rare few that can speak to any dragon, but that trait is rare." he eyed Lessa, and she grinned. Suddenly his expression changed, and just as F'nor had been, he appeared to be lost in a daydream. He recovered after a few seconds.

"What is it, F'lar?" F'nor asked, concerned.

"Mnementh said that the little one wants to meet a dragon."

"Who's the little one?" Instantly, all eyes landed on Angel. She looked up at me with that oh so innocent face that almost worked. If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought she actually meant what showed in those stupid eyes of hers.

"I really do want to see a dragon, Max. So I told Mnementh to tell his rider." This was quickly turning into a face-palm moment. But F'lar just laughed, obviously not getting the significance of Angel's words.

"Of course, I'm sure Mnementh wouldn't mind." And all of us left the room.


	7. Mnementh

**A/N - I'm sooo, so sorry for not uploading this sooner! Life has been getting the better of me and I've had no time for fanfiction. I've also tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time and actually did it! I wrote 50,000 words in one month! So I'm coming back to this and a few other stories in the hopes of reviving them and finishing them. Enjoy the long awaited chapter!**

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"Are you sure this is okay? I mean Angel doesn't NEED to meet a real-live dragon after all." I asked, and Angel looked at me sadly. We were walking down a long hall, which I think was the same one I came through before.

"Of course its okay, in fact, I insist! After all, if you want to learn about the Pernese way of life, you must start somewhere, and what better place to begin than with the dragons." I sighed, knowing it was pointless. Angel was going to get her way this time whether I liked it or not. Curse her awesome mind-reading powers!

At some point, F'nor left us and turned town a different hallway. We turned a corner and came to a ledge, which I had no trouble recognizing it as the one we came in from before. As we all crowded together on the ledge, F'lar held up his finger. He then had that weird blank look on his face that he had had before. When he came back to planet Earth – excuse me, Pern – he smiled.

"Here he comes now, kids." I looked up into the sky, and to my shock, there was the dragon Mnementh. As he landed on the ledge not thirty paces in front of us, I just stood there in shock.

It was a dragon alright, there was no mistaking that fact. He had the wings, claws, and all the regular features that a dragon should have. And he was HUGE. And when I say huge, I mean as big as a house if not bigger. His head alone was enormous, bigger than anything I could compare it to. His feet and claws alone could trap a human between them like a cage.

Even close up he was intimidating, but that didn't phase Angel one bit. She just walked right up to the giant beast, who lowered his great head to get a better look. Angel was no bigger than the beast's paws and yet the creature showed no intention of harming her. I could tell that she was enjoying it immensely.

"Max,"said Angel, "Mnementh wants you to come closer. He says won't hurt you."

"Wait, how in the golden egg did she know that?" F'lar asked. I guess it finally registered that a five year old was talking to one of his dragons.

"Oh yeah, Angel here can read minds just like your dragons." F'lar's face turned as pale and as white as a ghost.

"She can...what?" F'lar asked incredulously.

"Yeah, she's telepathic like the dragons are." I replied.

"Well..." F''lar tried to say something but couldn't find the words. "Say, why don't you go up and take a closer look at Mnementh?"

I gulped my fear and cautiously approached the dragon. I touched his hide, which was surprisingly soft like a leather or suede. It also smelled like a mix of spices, which was really weird but also really cool.

"Dragon's like their eye ridges scratched." F'lar remarked. As I proceeded to rub Mnementh's ridges, a low sound of pleasure rumbled from his throat and his eyes began to glow a bluish-green. That was the most astonishing thing about him: the eyes. There were many different facets like a spider's eyes, and they somehow changed colors and shown beautiful swirls. I wished that Fang was awake and able to see this.

"What do you think, Max?" Lessa asked smiling.

"He's amazing. I've never seen anything so... wonderful." The dragon rumbled and the noise made the ground vibrate.

"He thanks you for the compliment, Max." said F'lar.

"Iggy, you've got to come over here." I turned around and noticed Iggy standing there, his head leaning towards the ground and his body propped against the wall.

"No thanks, Max. You kinda have to have eyes to SEE a dragon..."

"Nonsense, Iggy. You have to feel his hide!" I grabbed his hand and, after dragging him to Mnementh's side, placed it on the dragon's head. Iggy's face lit up at the softness underneath his hand. His soft gentle fingers began to stoke the head, moving towards the side and eventually reaching the nostrils. This was Iggy's way of "seeing" the features of the dragon. While he didn't fuss at all, Mnementh sent a message to his rider voices his concerns; he wasn't quite sure what was going on

"No need to worry, Mnementh," F'lar assured him, "this young man is blind. He cannot see and his just trying to get a mental picture of what you look like, just like you do when you go _between_." As the dragon sent a response back to his human, F'lar laughed heartily.

"This is, just..." said Iggy, trying to find the words. "...there aren't any words to describe how I feel. You are a wonderful creature, Mnementh." The dragon rumbled with pleasure.

"He's one of the biggest dragons in the wyer, kids." said Lessa, finally speaking up.

"You mean there's one bigger?" Gazzy asked wide eyed. I thought he eyes would fall out of his head they were so wide.

"Oh yes, Mnementh's mate Ramoth is even bigger!" Lessa replied smiling. Gazzy got that grin on his face and looked just like a kid in a candy store.

"Can we see her, too?"

"Sorry, Gazzy, Ramoth is off limits right now." said F'lar. "She's close to hatching and should not be disturbed right now. If you try to get anywhere near her eggs, you will be in for a big surprise." Before Gazzy could even think about arguing that point (and trust me, he was about to), another figure emerged from the entrance.

"Why, F'lar, you didn't tell me we had guests!" The man was a bit wrinkled with age but was tall and held the biggest smile on his face." F'lar obviously knew the man and greeted him accordingly.

"Ah, yes, of course! I've told F'nor to send for you." he turned to us, "Kids, I'd like you to meet my good friend Robinton."


End file.
